


Seeker of Fish

by vanitasunverse



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fishing Is Mentioned, Gen, KH3 spoilers, Multi, ive been replaying ffxv and i come bearing gifts, one (1) screwdriver heartless got hurt while making this, riku can have a little SoRiKai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21651724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitasunverse/pseuds/vanitasunverse
Summary: Riku is taught fishing first by someone who does not only reel in fish.
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Seeker of Fish

**Author's Note:**

> kh3 spoilers but uhhhhh 
> 
> kairi sticks around during the last bunch of battles lmao 
> 
> anways, i've always wanted to do something with Incarnations Of Xehanort As Fishers since [i drew this picture](https://nortmare.tumblr.com/post/166360005372/from-dusk-to-the-dawn), but i never had enough thoughts about scenes to make a whole story, but today i literally thought off three of these scenes in the shower and the rest followed yay

As a child, Riku once managed to get a fishing hook stuck in his lip. He threw out his line from over his head, trying to impress Sora with how far he could throw it outwards, but it backfired. It bled and bled and bled, and it hurt so much when he tried to pull it out.

He ran crying to Sora, who offered to kiss it better. But Riku knew kissing things better was just a tale and had yanked it, thread and all, out in frustration, which made him cry harder. Sora sat there with him, chewing on his fingers and offering Riku his gameboy, until his dad found them like that.

They went home and Riku had to get stitches. Sora didn’t dare to look at him until he heard Riku speak again, days later, after they took the ‘scary threads’ out of his face. It left quite the scar, but Sora thought it was cool, so Riku thought it was cool as well.

* * *

Sora and Riku held many fishing competitions in the years after that, but not once did Riku think back on his painful memory.

They’d try sailing out, to find the weirdest things, but no special fish ever came to their hands.

At one point Sora fished a girl out of the ocean, quite literally, and before they both knew it she was fishing just as hard, always trying to keep up with them. Her name was Kairi.

After she started to dive for Thalassa seashells, Riku started diving for fish, but could never get quite far enough on his own. Sora never went deep, and from below the surface, Riku would see his shape swimming above them, illuminated by the sun. Besides him, dark skin, red hair and eyes like pearls would catch his shadow. Kairi pokes his side, and they resurface.

* * *

Riku remembered his wound the first time he saw a figure dressed in a robe on the pier, the sunset glowing behind them, the silhouette of a fishing rod like a needle on a spinning wheel for Riku.

The stranger had gazed at him with their mysterious eyes, glowing as hard as the sun beneath their hood before a mysterious voice spoke.

He introduced himself as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Riku quietly had wondered if he was also a seeker of fish, before the man gave him his own rod.

Riku hesitantly had thrown the lure out, ever since Kairi showed up he didn’t fish with lures like this anymore, he preferred swimming for them now. Fishing with a rod made him impatient as well, and he kept reeling and throwing restlessly.

It was starting to get near midnight when he still had nothing. Riku was sitting on the dock, face resting on his hands, arms resting on his knees.

“Are you kidding me? Nothing’s ever gonna bite. Nothing’s awake at night here.”

Ansem had merely looked at him, before reeling his own lure in, and throwing it further than Riku could follow. It disappeared into the darkness.

“You shouldn’t just look at the surface, boy.”

And then he reeled in a fish Riku could only have dreamt of. It was long, almost shaped like a person, with green fins and darker gills, it’s head long and narrow, a heart-shaped pattern on it’s chest.

“You will find more, if you dare to plunge yourself into the deepest darkness.”

Riku, breathless, watched in awe as he freed it and threw it back out.

“Will you be back tomorrow? To fish?”

The cloaked figure nodded, then seemed to fade away as well.

Riku was left alone, fishing rod in his hands.

* * *

When Ansem took him over, it felt like he split his lip all over again. Hook, line and sinker. And Sora couldn’t kiss him better after this, because Riku had watched him turn into light before his eyes. 

* * *

In the castle, a lonely girl with her own wounds stared at him, eyes wide, hands open, almost looking like she’s about to fade into her surroundings.

“You can go back to the way you used to be.”

Her voice is as soft as the invisible breeze that sways her hair. She taps her lip quietly, chewing on her finger like Sora would have. She could erase the scar he has there, and everything else. 

But Sora’s asleep, and Riku handles his own destiny now. He declines.

* * *

Over the course of the next year everything fades to a dull ache. The pain in his lips. The pain in his heart. When he sees Her on the beach, She reminds him so much of the shape drifting atop of the waves, and her hands on his side.

He blinks and the feeling is gone, the dull ache the only thing that remains.

* * *

Riku fishes when he feels lonely or frustrated. That year, he fishes a lot.

* * *

“Riku, you’re real!”

Kairi throws herself at him, and he can barely catch her, despite him being taller than he was a year ago. She’s as radiant as ever, her personality shining so bright she saw right through his form.

She pokes him in his side and he wheezes dryly as he bends over.

“Yup, new form, still the same old Riku. How’d you end up like this anyways?”

She holds his hand while she waits for him to explain, but Riku feels too big, like he’s too much. In his heart he knows it’s been a long time, but he can still feel that tugging on his lip when she asks him how he turned into Ansem.

* * *

They’re finally back on the islands, and Kairi kisses him once, twice, then Sora kisses him three times, and a fourth time to kiss it better.

* * *

As he dives after Sora into the dream portal, something strange happens. Riku sees a vague shape, feels worried for Sora as he watches him fade into the dream. There’s a pink flash before his eyes, and then nothing but darkness. For a moment, it feels like he’s becoming nothing itself, not much unlike becoming the darkness. Nervously, Riku feels for the scar on his face.

It’s still there, throbbing distantly on the beat of his heart. And with his heartbeat in his mind, he can feel a line pulling him forth. It’s visible too, it’s pink, the color of Sora’s heart and it glows and pulses and calls him. He grabs it with both hands and starts to follow it.

* * *

He’s still mentally holding on to that line as he faces his old nemesis again. In his eyes he can see it clearly, he wound it around his keyblade.

Ansem holds a line as well, even if the Seeker doesn’t realize it. It’s entangled with the pink one, and Riku’s hacking away at it. It’s cut, and Ansem falls back into his own guardian. The dull ache in his lip finally fades as he’s pulled back into reality.

* * *

Before the battle with Xehanort they all visit the islands. Riku watches the sunset, ever so distant, yet considering it close by when he thinks about having to travel again.

The pier is sunlit, Sora and Kairi are sitting there. The wood creaks under his shoes as he joins them, Sora pulling him between the two of them. Kairi claps a hand on his shoulder.

“Remember how we used to fish here? You used to be the best of the islands at it.”

“You never fished, you only dived in to pester me!”

Riku teases her back, and they all share a laugh.

“And I’d be counting how long you guys were down! Riku could hold his breath for so long, I’d think he was drowning!” Sora joins, intertwining his hands with Riku.

“Yea, even if I got back to the surface already, you’d stay down there for ages.” The sunlight reflects off Kairi’s eyes and necklace, blinding him momentarily. He brushes his hand over his scar.

“What were you doing down there anyways, for so long?”

“Seeking.”

“What?”

“New fish.”

* * *

It’s their final confrontation. Riku knows it. Ansem is the last of the trio to remain alive, and he’s... He’s fading and telling him to seek more, but Riku’s been satisfied for a while now with his life.

He feels whole with Sora and Kairi behind him. As Ansem fades, he throws something to the Seeker. Riku’s own lure, the one that Ansem had given him way back when everything was still normal, and when Riku still cared about winning fishing competitions. Ansem catches it, chuckles for a moment, and then he’s gone.

* * *

Riku’s been looking for Sora for a while now, but the thread he had in his dreams is gone. Instead he’s looking for him with cellphones, car drives, radio contacts and four new friends.

The motor’s engine roars as their driver Ignis steers skillfully throughout Eos.

There’s a pond nearby, the reflections of the setting sun catching his eyes. Behind him he hears Noctis chatter Gladio and Prompto up passionately. It reminds Riku of his own home, how Kairi would drag him and Sora outside to go to the sea, her voice ringing out as she’d scream.

“Lets fish!”


End file.
